February 08, 2013

AMR says passenger traffic in January up 1.8 percent

More passengers flew on American Airlines and its regional carrier American Eagle in January than in the same month last year, its parent company said on Friday.

AMR said passenger traffic grew 1.8 percent in January even though capacity was essentially flat, up 0.2 percent for the month. As a result, its load factor was 78.9 percent, up 1.3 percentage points from January 2012.

Domestic traffic grew 3.0 percent on a slight increase of 0.4 percent in capacity for AMR. The domestic load factor was 79.9 percent, up 2.0 percentage points. International traffic, which has recently been strong for AMR, was flat in January with only a 0.1 percent increase in traffic and no increase in its capacity.

AMR said it paid an average of $3.24 for fuel in January and that its unit revenues grew 3.1 percent compared to last January.